During her lifetime, Grace Hartigan was the recipient of numerous awards and honorary doctorates.

In 1953 the Museum of Modern Art purchased The Persian Jacket. Her work was included in the museum’s Twelve Americans show in 1956, and in 1958 in the seminal New American Painting exhibition that toured Europe through 1959.

In 1960, Grace Hartigan moved to Baltimore, eventually teaching at the Maryland Institute College of Art, which built a graduate school around her practice, the Hoffberger School of Painting. She became the director of the school in 1965.

The traveling exhibition Women of Abstract Expressionism, organized by the Denver Art Museum (June 12–September 25, 2016), is currently on view at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC (October 22, 2016–January 22, 2017).